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Libor Hajek

New York Rangers Sign Libor Hajek To Two-Way Contract

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Sep 7: The Rangers have officially announced the one-year deal.

Sep 4: The New York Rangers have inked young defenseman Libor Hajek to a new deal, per CapFriendly. The one-year contract carries an $874,125 cap hit and salary while paying him $70,000 at the minor-league level.

Originally a second-round draft choice of the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2016, Hajek entered the Rangers organization as part of the return for former captain Ryan McDonagh in 2018. Hajek’s played all of his NHL games with the Rangers, scoring three goals and 10 points in 77 games over the past three seasons. Hajek made the jump to being a full-time NHLer this season, playing in 44 out of the Rangers’ 56 games and spent no time in the minor leagues. However, the two-way nature of the contract would lead some to believe that the Rangers weren’t particularly impressed with his performance.

There’s obviously still room to grow for the young Czech, but the Rangers may have been right in their assessment. Hajek’s posted poor chance generation and suppression numbers in the league for the past two seasons. Now with a bolstered depth chart on the left side of defense that includes the emerging K’Andre Miller, Ryan Lindgren, and free-agent acquisitions Patrik Nemeth and Jarred Tinordi, it’s possible that Hajek sees a return to the minors this season and is placed on waivers.

Rangers Making Progress On Libor Hajek’s Contract

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The bulk of the heavy lifting has been done for the Rangers and new GM Chris Drury as they have made several changes to their roster, adding plenty of grit along the way.  They still have one RFA left to re-sign, however, in Libor Hajek but Mollie Walker of the New York Post reports that New York is closing in on a deal with the defenseman.

The 23-year-old was one of the pieces that went to the Rangers as part of the deal that saw Ryan McDonagh and J.T. Miller go to Tampa Bay back at the 2018 trade deadline.  At the time, Hajek was in the middle of wrapping up a strong junior career and it looked like he might be a prospect that could be a long-term piece for New York.

While he’s still young enough to change his fortunes, that hasn’t quite happened yet.  Hajek played in 44 games with the Rangers last season but in a limited role, averaging just over 15 minutes per game while predominantly being on their third pairing.  His waiver exemption allowed him to be shuffled to the taxi squad and after working his way back up to the big club in February, he was sent down another 13 times through the season for cap purposes.

With his limited role, it’s hard to see Hajek landing much more than the value of his qualifying offer last month, one that was worth just over $874K.  He isn’t waiver-exempt anymore which makes a proposal of a lower NHL salary than the qualifier in exchange for a higher AHL salary – a common contract we’ve seen with some restricted free agents this summer – less palatable but it’s a deal that should be fairly simple to hammer out.  With the bigger moves now complete, Drury can focus on getting Hajek re-signed, a move that appears to be coming sooner than later.

Free Agent Focus: New York Rangers

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Free agency is now just under a month away and many teams are already looking ahead to when it opens up.  There will be several prominent players set to hit the open market in late July while many teams have key restricted free agents to re-sign as well. The Rangers are more concerned with the latter than the former, with few impending UFAs of note but quite a few impact RFAs.

Key Restricted Free Agents

F Pavel Buchnevich – Buchnevich is one of four of the Rangers’ top-twelve scoring forwards without a contract for next season, alongside Chytil, Gauthier, and Di Giuseppe, but is by far the most important. Buchnevich finished third in per-game scoring for New York this year, behind only stars Artemi Panarin and Mika Zibanejad. His 48 points were two more than his 2019-20 total, but in 14 fewer games. Buchnevich’s consistent scoring paired with his defensive improvements and success on both special teams units led to an increase in ice time to 18:44 per game, top line minutes again behind only Zibanejad and Panarin. Buchnevich timed this breakout year well; the 26-year-old forward is now a restricted free agent with arbitration rights. This is not an aberration either, as Buchnevich has shown steady improvement throughout his career and is firmly established as a top-six forward with 20-goal and 50-point regularity. The Rangers will have no choice but to pay up, short-term or long-term, with an unfavorable arbitration decision, not to mention the animosity created by the process, as a looming threat.

G Igor Shesterkin – The Rangers may have two young goaltenders in the pros and a multitude of talented prospects in the pipeline, but make no mistake: Shesterkin is invaluable. The 25-year-old netminder has only played in 47 games across two seasons since coming over from the KHL, but has been superb with a .921 save percentage, 2.59 GAA, and a .611 points percentage in his decisions for a team that has played at a .552 clip over the past two years. Shesterkin is the best of the bunch in net in New York and the Rangers need to lock him up on a multi-year deal, regardless of his lack of NHL experience. Shesterkin’s arbitration eligibility ensures that they will have to pay him fairly as well. Shesterkin is close to unrestricted free agency and the worst thing the team could do is sign what looks to be a solid NHL starter to a short-term deal (or settle for an arbitration decision) only to see him continue to perform or even improve and then price himself out of town.

Other RFAs: F Filip Chytil, D Brandon Crawley, F Gabriel Fontaine, F Julien Gauthier, F Tim Gettinger, D Libor Hajek, G Adam Huska, F Patrick Newell, F Ty Ronning, D Yegor Rykov

Key Unrestricted Free Agents

D Brendan Smith – It wasn’t long ago that Smith’s contract was one of the most criticized in the NHL as he was buried in the minors in the first season of a four-year, $17.4MM deal with the Rangers. In the years since, he has somewhat recovered to become a good albeit still overpaid depth defenseman for New York. Smith has played in over 80% of the Rangers’ games over the past three seasons since his abysmal debut season, providing physicality and defensive stability and, for the first time in 2020-21, more secure puck-handling and a hint more offense. With a deep stable of talented young defensemen, the Rangers don’t need Smith. However, they could do far worse than someone with versatility, checking ability, and veteran experience as a depth option. He would come much cheaper this time around as well, as Smith is unlikely to have a competitive market as a free agent.

F Phil Di Giuseppe – At 27 years old with only 201 career games and 53 career points, Di Giuseppe has not much more than a depth option during his time in the NHL and likely won’t be. However, he proved to be valuable in that role in two seasons with New York, playing a gritty checking game and contributing some modest offense. Di Giuseppe’s success as a plug-and-play bottom-six forward is not limited to his time with the Rangers either, as some of his best seasons were playing the same role with the Carolina Hurricanes. As an affordable extra man, Di Giuseppe has value to the Rangers as an extension candidate, but he may be on the lookout for more opportunity rather than staying on a New York roster that is deep in young players in need of ice time and hoping to add more veterans this off-season.

Other UFAs: D Jack Johnson, D Darren Raddysh

Projected Cap Space

While Buchnevich and Shesterkin will earn considerable deals this summer and Chytil is deserving of a sizeable raise as well, the Rangers remain in good shape with the salary cap. They currently project to have $22.89MM in cap space with 18 players on the NHL roster, but that includes third-string goaltender Keith Kinkaid and cap charge for defenseman Anthony DeAngelo, who will be traded or at worst bought out in the off-season. A more accurate projection is closer to $25.5MM with 17 players on the roster. New deals for Gauthier, Hajek, and possibly Smith or Di Giuseppe (or replacements) should come cheap, leaving plenty of room to re-sign the key trio of RFA’s with room to spare to add another impact forward or two.

Contract information courtesy of CapFriendly.

Snapshots: Next Season, Overseas Prospects, Hajek

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Yesterday’s call with the NHL board of governors didn’t result in any sweeping announcements about next season, but insiders around the game have gleaned a bit of information about what was discussed and what is still on the table. Frank Seravalli puts many of those information nuggets into his latest piece for TSN, including the fact that preference now seems to be moving away from hybrid bubbles or “hubs” as commissioner Gary Bettman recently called them, and towards teams playing in their home arenas. Seravalli suggests that regional realignment would be required, but that teams would play a baseball-like series of two or three games to reduce travel.

He also reports that there is “no concept on the table that includes a full-length regular season.” That seemed clear when Bettman publicly spoke about a reduced schedule, something the league was obviously hoping to avoid but is now inevitable. There are no formal proposals on the table yet, but with the January 1 target date getting closer every day, there will need to be a decision at some point in the near future—even if it is just another delay.

  • With the hockey offseason moving at a snail’s pace in November, fans have started to scour overseas boxscores to see how their favorite prospects are doing. Mike Shulman of Sportsnet published a piece today going over many of the most interesting names, including several 2021 draft prospects that are still trying to raise their stock. Among the group of already drafted players is Yaroslav Askarov once again, who continues to turn heads every time he hits the ice. Even Shulman sold him a bit short, without updated statistics from the KHL. Askarov returned to the SKA St. Petersburg crease yesterday after dominating at the Kajala Cup and put on another show, stopping 24 of 25 shots in a huge victory over HC Vityaz. Askarov is now toting a .960 save percentage in five KHL games, allowing only five goals on 125 shots.
  • Speaking of overseas prospects, the New York Rangers will have another one to keep an eye on as Libor Hajek joins HC Kometa Brno on loan for the time being. Hajek was loaned to Brno originally, then switched to Olomouc, but is now apparently heading back to where he started. The 22-year-old has struggled during his time in the NHL over the last two seasons and will need to take another step in his development before the Rangers can really rely on him as a full-time option.

Overseas Loans: Hajek, Tarasov, Almari

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Prospect loans continue all around the league as NHL teams try to find playing time for their young talent. A flurry of moves were announced today, including:

  • While Libor Hajek of the New York Rangers was supposed to be heading to HC Kometa Brno, he’ll now join HC Olomouc of the Czech professional league instead. In an interview with iSport, Hajek confirmed the change and explained that it’s closer to where he is currently living and training. Now 22, Hajek played in 28 games for the Rangers this season, recording five points. The 37th overall pick from 2016, he was part of the Ryan McDonagh trade in 2018 with the Tampa Bay Lightning.
  • Daniil Tarasov, another member of the Columbus Blue Jackets goaltending pipeline, will take his talents to the KHL for this season, joining HC Salavat Yulaev for 2020-21. Tarasov, 21, played in Finland last season on loan from the Blue Jackets and put up an .899 save percentage in 41 matches. The 6’5″ Russian goaltender was a third-round pick in 2017 and is in the second year of his three-year entry-level contract with Columbus.
  • Along with Jesse Ylonen, whose name was brought up yesterday, Niclas Almari will also be loaned to the Lahti Pelicans in Finland. The 22-year-old defenseman was signed by the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2019 and played 51 games with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins this season. While Ylonen is only overseas until an NHL season begins, Almari will be staying with the Pelicans for the entire 2020-21 season according to the team.

Overseas Notes: Hajek, Zboril, Plekanec, Sulzer

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Add a pair of young defensemen to the ever-growing list of players heading to Europe to begin their 2020-21 seasons. Michael Kosturik of Czech source iSport reports that the New York Rangers’ Libor Hajek and the Boston Bruins’ Jakub Zboril with join HC Kometa Brno of the Czech Extraliga ahead of the start of the NHL season. Hajek, 22, is under contract with the Rangers for the coming season and the two teams are currently hammering out the details on a short-term loan. Zboril has joined the squad on his own accord as an impending restricted free agent. However, Kosturik does add that the Bruins are interested in an extension with the first-round prospect. Zboril has played in just two games for Boston, but has been a steady, consistent defender for the AHL’s Providence Bruins over three pro seasons. Hajek on the other hand played the majority of his games with New York this season and has 33 NHL games total on his resume. While offense has been hard to come by at any level, Hajek is growing into a reliable stay-at-home defenseman. The pair will provide a major boost to Brno to begin the season, who at this point have not been able to recruit any other NHLers on short-term loans or contracts.

  • Long-time NHLer Tomas Plekanec played last season in Brno, but will now return to Rytiri Kladno of the Czech 2nd League, with whom he spent part of the 2018-19 season. Due to family reasons, Plekanec announced last month that he would be leaving Brno to return to his hometown of Kladno. However, it was unclear whether he would continue playing or not. Plekanec was very successful last season with 33 points in 50 games, but at age 37 no one would have been surprised to see him opt to retire. Yet, it seems his friend and legendary player-owner of Kladno Jaromir Jagr, 48, has convinced him to give it one last try – or more accurately two – as the club has announced a two-year deal with Plekanec. Plekanec and Jagr worked hard to get Kladno elevated from Czech2 to the Extraliga in 2018-19 only for the team to be relegated this past season in Plekanec’s absence. The duo will undoubtedly have their sights set on getting the club back to the top level again this year.
  • One former NHLer who is calling it a career is defenseman Alexander Sulzer. Sulzer, 36, played in 131 NHL games with four teams over seven seasons in North America. One of the best defensemen to ever come out of Germany, representing the country twice at the Olympic Games, Sulzer returned home to play in the DEL in 2014-15. He spent five seasons with Kolner Haie before moving to Dusseldorfer EG last season. However, he never played for the team as he required surgery to remove a tumor on his spine last summer which caused him to miss the entirety of the season. In the year since his operation, Sulzer has come to the decision not to try to return to play and the DEL announced that he has officially retired. A big, balanced defenseman, Sulzer made an impact in the NHL and an even greater impact in his native Germany over a long career.

Snapshots: Amnesty, Lucic, Game Audio, Hajek

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Despite the hopes and dreams of fans around the NHL, the agreed-upon return-to-play conditions and extended CBA is not likely to include any kind of amnesty clause, per TSN’s Bob McKenzie. The assumption that the salary cap will hold at $81.5MM for the next two seasons gave rise to some speculation that the stagnant cap would be augmented by an amnesty provision, but it appears teams will be stuck with the contracts they’ve got on the books. For the Calgary Flames, that means Milan Lucic, writes Todd Cordell of Hockey Buzz. Lucic has three more years on his deal worth $5.25MM per season. The 32-year-old Lucic hardly set the world on fire in his first season in Calgary, notching just 20 points (8 goals, 12 assists) across 68 games. The Flames acquired Lucic and a conditional 3rd round pick for winger James Neal after one disappointing season in Calgary produced just seven goals. The money owed Lucic isn’t exorbitant, but it’s not an ideal price tag for an aging winger entering his mid-thirties. Lucic still played a role on the Flames’ third line, but his days as a 40-60 point scorer appear behind him. Additionally, it’s unclear right now if the Flames will actually receive the third-round pick. To get the pick in this year’s draft, Neal had to score at least 21 goals and record 10 more goals than Lucic. The second condition was qualified, but Neal scored just 19 goals – in a shortened season. Common sense would look at those numbers and say Neal was going to qualify both conditions, but it’s not entirely clear.

  • When the NHL returns to television, the game may look the same – except for the leagues of empty seats in the background – but the audio experience may provide an even more jarring change, per Kevin McGran of The Star. Without access to players, the play-by-play commentators are likely to call games from a studio instead of the arena, and in terms of sideline reporting, well, there won’t be any. Studios are still working on the best way to pump in ambient sound, whether that’s highlighting sounds from the ice or using some kind of fan track. The most entertaining option would almost certainly be to mic the players, but that would require players to curb their vulgarity, which, in the heat of the moment, might be too great an ask.
  • Libor Hajek of the New York Rangers has hired Octagon as his representation, tweets agent Allan Walsh. The young blueliner appeared in 28 games for the Rangers this season, recording five assists but no goals. Walsh also represents NHL players like Marc-Andre Fleury and Brock Boeser.

Minor Transactions: 01/14/20

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11 games are on tap for tonight in a busy evening for the NHL, including the Dallas Stars and Colorado Avalanche clashing in an important Central Division match. The two teams are battling for home ice advantage in what would be a first round playoff series, with the Stars currently one point ahead of the Avalanche in the standings. The two teams have arrived there in very different ways, with Dallas allowing the fewest goals against in the league while Colorado ranks among the highest-scoring. As they and the rest of the NHL prepares for tonight, we’ll keep track of all the minor moves.

  • The Toronto Maple Leafs have recalled Timothy Liljegren after losing Morgan Rielly to a broken foot. The young defenseman will likely not play tonight, but now sits as the team’s seventh option as they insert Rasmus Sandin back into the lineup.
  • The Maple Leafs have also sent Mason Marchment back to the minors, an expected move after recently activating Andreas Johnsson from injured reserve. The team is still waiting on the return of Trevor Moore, while Ilya Mikheyev is not expected to play again this season.
  • Joseph Blandisi has been assigned to the AHL a few days after clearing waivers for the third time. The 25-year old forward has split his season between the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and Pittsburgh Penguins, scoring five points at the NHL level.
  • The New York Rangers have sent Libor Hajek to the minor leagues, likely to get in some more game action before returning to the lineup. The 21-year old defenseman returned for the Rangers on Saturday night in St. Louis, but played just 15 minutes and was relatively ineffective. In 28 games this season Hajek has five points.

East Notes: Tortorella, Senators, Hajek

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Following his latest rant about officiating over the weekend, it was only a matter of time before Blue Jackets head coach John Tortorella received a fine from the league.  That came down today as the league announced that they’ve fined him $20K plus an additional conditional fine of $25K should there be another similar outburst between now and December 29th of this year which basically places him on press conference probation.  The conditional element is a rather unique one but perhaps it’s justified as this is the twelfth time that Tortorella has been subject to discipline from the league – three suspensions and nine fines.

More from the Eastern Conference:

  • The Senators appear to be getting one of their injured defensemen back for Thursday’s game against Florida. Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch notes (Twitter link) that defenseman Nikita Zaitsev is likely to return after missing the last seven games due to a lower-body injury.  However, Ron Hainsey is likely to miss at least another week.  Meanwhile, netminder Anders Nilsson has resumed skating after being diagnosed with a concussion following his last start back on December 16th.
  • Still with Ottawa, GM Pierre Dorion told Garrioch that they expect defense prospect Lassi Thomson to return to North America next season. Thomson was selected 19th overall by the Senators back in June out of Kelowna of the WHL but opted not to return there and instead returned to Ilves of the SM-liiga this season on loan.  Thomson is currently at the World Juniors where he captains Team Finland and collected three assists through the opening round of the tournament.
  • While Rangers defenseman Libor Hajek is a part of their future core on the back end, he hasn’t finished his time in the AHL just yet. Head coach David Quinn told reporters, including Brett Cyrgalis of the New York Post, that the 21-year-old is likely going to be assigned to AHL Hartford once he’s cleared to return from his current knee injury that has held him out of the last dozen games.  Hajek has at least resumed skating so his return may not be too far away.

East Notes: Athanasiou, Hajek, Brown

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Andreas Athanasiou has been wildly inconsistent throughout his NHL career.  After scoring 30 goals last season though, it looked like he was emerging as a key piece of the puzzle for the Red Wings.  However, he has struggled considerably this season with just five goals in 28 games along with a league-worst -31 rating.  To that end, MLive’s Ansar Khan suggests that GM Steve Yzerman could be reaching the point where he believes it’s time to move on from the winger.  Athanasiou is one of several wingers that are slated to become restricted free agents and it’s likely that they’ll be seeking long-term pacts with Anthony Mantha and Tyler Bertuzzi.  Given Athanasiou’s struggles though, it’s harder to envision them pursuing a long-term deal with him at this time.  Of course, the timing for a trade isn’t ideal as they’d be selling low so if Yzerman does decide to move on, the offseason may be the better time to pull the trigger on a deal.

Elsewhere in the East:

  • Rangers defenseman Libor Hajek will miss the next three to four weeks due to a knee sprain, the team announced (Twitter link). The injury occurred early in Thursday’s game against Columbus.  The second-year pro has held down a regular spot on New York’s back end this season, playing in 27 games while averaging just over 16 minutes a night in playing time.  The injury means that Marc Staal, who came off IR for Friday’s game, should have a regular spot in the lineup for at least the next few weeks.
  • After sending down defenseman Erik Brannstrom earlier this week in an effort to get him more playing time, Senators head coach D.J. Smith acknowledged to Postmedia’s Ken Warren that center Logan Brown could be in a similar situation before too long. Brown played just 5:28 on Wednesday and was a healthy scratch a week ago and is poised to be on the fourth line for today’s game in Philadelphia.  That low of ice time isn’t ideal from a development perspective so if it continues much longer, he’ll likely be heading back to AHL Belleville.

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